The NAACP Theatre Awards are a NAACP member voted awards started in 1991 and presented annually by the Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the NAACP to honor outstanding people of color in theatre. The ceremonies usually take place in the Los Angeles area following the presentation ceremonies of the NAACP Image Awards. There are also honorary awards: the President's Award, the Trailblazer Award, the Spirit Award, the Community Service Award and The Lifetime Achievement Award.

1.
Theatre
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The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence, the specific place of the performance is also named by the word theatre as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον, itself from θεάομαι. Modern theatre, broadly defined, includes performances of plays and musical theatre, there are connections between theatre and the art forms of ballet, opera and various other forms. The city-state of Athens is where western theatre originated, participation in the city-states many festivals—and mandatory attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member in particular—was an important part of citizenship. The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture, Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional. The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play, the origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle, the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honoured Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10, the stage consisted of a dancing floor, dressing room and scene-building area. Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics, the actors wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts. Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE, no tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institution alised in competitions held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus. As contestants in the City Dionysias competition playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays, the performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE, official records begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics, Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the surviving plays of Aristophanes. New Comedy is known primarily from the papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster. In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the satyr play eventually found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyrs themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal companions, often engaging in drunken revelry

2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

3.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital

4.
Glynn Turman
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Glynn Russell Turman is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a writer, director, and producer. He recently portrayed Jeremiah Kaan on the Showtime series House of Lies, lonne Elder III, John Fiedler and Diana Sands. While he did not play the role when it transferred to film in 1961 and he made his Los Angeles stage debut in Vinnette Carrolls Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. An impressive 1974 performance in The Wine Sellers earned him a Los Angeles Critics Award nomination, the play was also produced on Broadway as What The Wine Sellers Buy. He won his first NAACP Image Award for his work in the play Eyes of the American, a stage director as well, he received his second NAACP Image award for his directing of Deadwood Dick at the Inner City Cultural Center. He segued these directing talents to TV where he helmed episodes of The Parent Hood, Hangin with Mr. Cooper. He also directed during his seasons of employment on A Different World. The shows theme song was sung by his ex-wife, legendary Queen of Soul artist Aretha Franklin, D. s Revenge and A Hero Aint Nothin but a Sandwich. TV movies included Carters Army, the prestigious Centennial, Attica, the quality of Glynns work has shown over the decades with his participation in such prominent TV-movies as Race to Freedom, The Underground Railroad in 1994, Buffalo Soldiers and Freedom Song. More notable films include Penitentiary II, Gremlins, Deep Cover, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Men of Honor, Sahara, Kings of the Evening, Burlesque and Super 8. In 2004, he joined the hit HBO series The Wire portraying the role of Mayor Clarence Royce. His portrayal of Mayor Royce has given him an NAACP Image award nomination for Outstanding Support Actor in a Drama Series for the 2007 awards ceremony, since The Wire, Turman guest-starred as a patient in the Scrubs episode My Last Words. Turmans other television appearances include the Twilight Zone segment Paladin of the Lost Hour, Matlock, Millennium, in 2008, he won a Primetime Emmy award for his guest appearance on the HBO series In Treatment. He recently appeared on the ABC series Detroit 1-8-7 and he is currently performing and producing a one-man show, Movin Man, about his life and plans a book as well. Turman was almost cast for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, in a 2007 interview, Turman recalled, That was in George Lucas book. At the time, I had no idea, I just went to the audition, did it and got out of there. In 2012, he began starring in House of Lies on Showtime as the father of the characters played by Don Cheadle, im 2016 he appeared in the Oprah Winfrey Network tv show Queen Sugar in which he played the father, Ernest Bordelon. The character died in one, season three

5.
Hill Harper
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Francis Eugene Hill Harper is an American actor and author. Harper was born in Iowa City, Iowa, the son of Harry Harper, a psychiatrist, and Marilyn Hill and he has been acting since the age of 7. Harper graduated from Bella Vista High School in 1984 and he then graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1988. In 1992 Harper graduated with a J. D. cum laude, in addition, he also received his Master of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. During his years at Harvard, he was a member of Bostons Black Folks Theater Company. While a student at Harvard, Harper befriended Barack Obama, Harper and Obama met on the basketball court and became good friends during their first year as law students. Although Harper earned three Ivy League degrees, he decided to pursue acting and moved to Los Angeles and he has received several honorary degrees, including honorary doctorates from both Westfield State College and Howard University. Born Francis Eugene Harper, he adopted the name Hill as a tribute to both his maternal and paternal ancestors, harpers first roles in television began in 1993, in a recurring role on the Fox series Married. With Children while also making his debut in the short film Confessions of a Dog. He had his first acting role in a film with Spike Lees Get on the Bus. He went on to demonstrate his versatility in such films as Christopher Scott Cherots Hav Plenty and Lees He Got Game. His profile subsequently rose on both the mainstream and independent film circuits, thanks to roles in films ranging from Beloved to the independent romantic comedy Loving Jezebel to The Skulls. Harper did some of his most acclaimed work in Jordan Walker-Pearlmans The Visit, Harper played coroner-turned-crime scene investigator Sheldon Hawkes on the CBS crime drama CSI, NY for nine seasons. He also portrayed Leshem in the 2010 Syfy original movie Stonehenge Apocalypse, in February 2013 it was announced that CSI, NY would be ending and Harper would be joining the cast of Covert Affairs as a series regular. From April 21,2015 to May 10,2015, Hill Harper starred as “Hard Rock“ in the Off-Broadway play ToasT, the play was set in the Attica Prison around the time of its 1971 prison riot and told of the lives of its prisoners using poetic prose. His books, The Wealth Cure, Putting Money in Its Place, and his book, Letters to an Incarcerated Brother, Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones was published in 2013. In January 2008, Hill Harper participated in Yes We Can, the Yes We Can music video was produced by will. i. am. Harper is a member of the Obama for America National Finance Committee, as of October 2009, Hill has made several contributions to political candidates, exclusively to Democrats

6.
Valarie Pettiford
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Valarie Pettiford is an American stage and television actress, dancer, and jazz singer. She received a Tony nomination for her role in the broadway production Fosse and she is also known for her role as Big Dee Dee Thorne on the UPN sitcom Half & Half. Pettiford began her career as a dancer and choreographer in Bob Fosse productions on Broadway, miss Pettiford appears to be a superbly trained dancer, schooled in balletic finesse and Broadway-style razzmatazz - and a stunning presence. Leah Frank, also in the NYT, wrote of Pettifords appearance in West Side Story in 1987, The mainstay of the supporting cast is Valarie Pettiford, whose Anita is spicy, sensual and full of fire. She is an actress who has a special quality needed to ignite a number such as America. In 1994, she played black lesbian Cassandra Keefer in The Naked Truth, Pettiford received a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical and a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for her role in the Broadway production Fosse from 1998 to 1999. Variety said Pettiford gave a coolly elegant vocal rendition, is also a sultry and she left Fosse to appear as Velma Kelly in Chicago in the West End in London from August 1999 to February 2000, alongside Chita Rivera as Roxie Hart. In 2007 Pettiford won the Backstage Bistro Award for her debut at the Metropolitan Room. In 2008, she starred in a show, Valarie Pettiford - Thankful that played in New York. In 2009, she starred in the solo show Valarie Pettiford - The Concert in Manhattan, Pettifords first film role was in 1978 at the age of 18 while still at the High School of Performing Arts, as part of the ensemble in The Wiz. She starred as Mariah Careys mother in the 2001 film Glitter, had a part in Stomp the Yard in 2007, in the 1990s, Pettiford appeared on daytime soap operas, including Another World and One Life to Live. Her Half & Half role from 2002-6 as Big Dee Dee Thorne gained her three NAACP Image Award nominations, from 2008 to 2009, she played Sandra Lucas in the comedy-drama series Tyler Perrys House of Payne. She also appeared in the HBO pilot Anatomy of Hope, directed by JJ Abrams, and currently has a re-occurring role as the wife to Harold Cooper Assistant Director of the FBI Counter-Terrorism Division, on the NBC drama The Blacklist. Pettiford released an album, Hear My Soul, in 2005. She is married to her manager, actor and former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tony Rader, Valarie Pettiford at the Internet Movie Database Valarie Pettiford on Myspace DB Media showreel at YouTube Interview with Southland Theater Artists Goodwill Event at YouTube

7.
Directors Guild of America
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The Directors Guild of America is an entertainment guild which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the merged with the Radio. As a union that seeks to organize an individual profession, rather than multiple professions across an industry, the DGA is a craft union. It represents directors and members of the team that representation includes all sorts of media, such as film, television, documentaries, news, sports, commercials. The Guild has various training programs whereby successful applicants are placed in various productions, as of 2017, the guild had more than 16,000 members. The DGA headquarters are located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, with offices in New York and Chicago and coordinating committees in San Francisco, Chicago. Suspended members pay dues but are ineligible to vote in the union, DGA contracts also cover some non-members, known as agency fee payers. These non-members currently number 172, or comparatively about 1% of the size of the unions membership, Guild members are generally prevented from working for companies that have not signed an agreement with the DGA. This sometimes leads production companies which have no agreement to form new companies, purely for the purpose of making a particular film. The DGA negotiates minimum compensation levels that must be paid by the companies, many DGA members have agents who may negotiate rates above the minimums for their clients. The DGA agreements also secure residual payments for the reuse of members’ work in film, television, other than wages and basic working conditions, the DGA has a particular role in protecting the creative rights of film and TV directors. Such protections that the guild provides include defining the role, ensuring, with examples, the principle of one director to a picture. Generally each of these protections is to offset the power that producers can have over a director during the film-making process. The DGA hosts the annual DGA Awards, an important precursor to the Academy Awards, in its 69-year history, the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has been a near perfect barometer for the Best Director Academy Award. Only seven times since the DGA Awards inception has the DGA Award winner not won the corresponding Academy Award, honorees are awarded with a statue, manufactured by New York firm, Society Awards. The rule is waived only for directorial teams recognized by the DGA who have a history of working together, examples include The Wachowskis, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Hughes brothers, Brothers Strause, and the Coen brothers. The Coens for years divided credit, with Ethan taking producing credit, Joel taking directing credit, in the past, the DGA has also engaged in disputes with the Writers Guild of America over possessory credits, first used in the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation. The WGA tried to limit possessory credits to writers, but has always been opposed by the DGA

8.
Chandra Wilson
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Chandra Danette Wilson is an American actress, known for her role as Dr. Miranda Bailey in the ABC television drama Greys Anatomy since 2005. She made her New York stage debut in 1991 and began to land guest spots on a variety of television shows. She made her first film appearance in the 1993 film Philadelphia, Wilson was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Her mother, a worker, wanted to keep her daughter active. Starting at age four, my mom decided that she was not going to have a child in the house. So I started taking lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then I was in acting classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. By the age of five, Wilson was performing in musicals with Houstons Theatre Under the Stars company and she attended Houstons High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and continued on to New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts, graduating with a BFA in drama in 1991. For the next four years, from 1991–95, she studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute while at the same time racking up professional theater credits. She made her New York debut in a 1991 production of The Good Times Are Killing Me and her other early stage credits include off-Broadway productions of Paper Moon, The Musical and Little Shop of Horrors. While she was making a name for herself on the New York stage and she appeared on The Cosby Show, Law & Order and CBS Schoolbreak Special. She made her debut alongside Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in the highly acclaimed 1993 film Philadelphia. Despite receiving high praise for all of her performances, however. For eight years, while she tried to break into major stardom, throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wilson continued to turn in memorable, if brief, performances on popular TV shows. She appeared on Third Watch, Sex and the City, The Sopranos and in episodes of Law And Order. And while struggling to land recurring roles on television, Wilson managed to attain considerable prominence on the Broadway stage in such as On the Town, Avenue Q and Caroline. In 2005, Wilson landed her role as Dr. Miranda Bailey on the hit ABC show Greys Anatomy. Wilsons first regular network TV role was in the short-lived series Bob Patterson, in a review for USA Today, Robert Bianco called Wilson the only person in the show you can imagine wanting to see again. Similarly, the Los Angeles Times said, The only character here thats amusingly written is Bobs new assistant and she also appeared on Law & Order SVU, Sex and the City, and The Sopranos, and had a small role in Lone Star

9.
Anthony Anderson
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Anthony Anderson is an American actor, comedian, writer, and game show host. He has starred in his own sitcom, All About the Andersons, as well as the ABC sitcom Black-ish and he is also known for his leading roles in drama series K-Ville, The Shield and as NYPD Detective Kevin Bernard on Law & Order. He has also had roles in feature films such as Me, Myself & Irene, Kangaroo Jack, Agent Cody Banks 2, Destination London, The Departed, Transformers. Anderson is also a judge on Food Networks Iron Chef America. Since September 2014, he has served as an executive producer, as of June 2016, he has served as host of the ABC version of the game show To Tell the Truth. In addition, he has served as guest panelist for various shows throughout the 21st century. Anderson was born in Compton, California, according to a DNA analysis, Anderson descends from the Bubi people of Bioko Island, and from the Tikar, Hausa, and Fulani people of Cameroon. Anderson has stated that his first attempt at stand up comedy was a failure. Although this experience was a blow to his ego, he did meet his friend and fellow comedic actor Guy Torry there. He and Guy would later act together in the Eddie Murphy film titled Life, Anderson is an alumnus of the Hollywood High School Performing Arts Magnets Class of 1988 and Howard University. He trained with actors such as Avery Brooks, Ruby Dee, Anderson writes for and stars in the hit ABC series, Blackish, alongside Laurence Fishburne and Tracee Ellis Ross which airs on Wednesday nights. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for this role and his past television work includes a lead role in the teen series Hang Time as Teddy Broadis. He had many one-off and guest roles on series such as NYPD Blue, Malcolm & Eddie, In the House. Recurring roles were on series such as Til Death and The Bernie Mac Show. He previously starred in two other series, Foxs K-Ville and Foxs cable channel FXs The Shield. Andersons series Eating America, with Anthony Anderson was a show in 2014. He also is a judge on Iron Chef America. Anderson is one of the few judges to taste dishes from all the Iron Chefs on the show, in the Ultimate Bar Food battle, he served as bartender/sous-chef for Iron Chef Bobby Flay opposite Masaharu Morimoto and fellow judge Simon Majumdar

10.
Kimberly Elise
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Kimberly Elise Trammel, professionally known as Kimberly Elise, is an American film and television actress. She made her film debut in Set It Off. During her career, Elise has appeared in such as John Q. The Manchurian Candidate, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Great Debaters, For Colored Girls, Elise also starred in the CBS crime drama series, Close to Home, and in 2013 began starring in the VH1 comedy-drama series, Hit the Floor. Elise was born as Kimberly Elise Trammel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the daughter of Erma Jean, a school teacher, and Marvin Trammel. She attended The American Film Institute as a Directing Fellow and at the University of Minnesota earned a BA in Mass Communications, elises first film was Set It Off, in which she played one of four women who resort to robbing a bank for money. She received critical acclaim for her role in film, and in 1997. A relative unknown at the time, she conveyed her anonymity upon receiving the award by saying and her performance helped her land a role the next year in Beloved alongside Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. She is often compared to a young Cicely Tyson, whom she resembles and she made guest appearances on the situation comedy Girlfriends in 2003, in which she played an HIV-positive woman. In 2004, she appeared in Woman Thou Art Loosed portraying Michelle and this role won her a Black Reel award for Best Actress. She also appeared in John Q, The Manchurian Candidate and Diary of a Mad Black Woman, from 2005 to 2007, she was part of the main cast of the CBS crime drama Close to Home, playing the Marion County, Indiana prosecutor Maureen Scofield. Her character was killed off in the last episode of the series, the series was cancelled on May 2007. Her most recent film role was in Tyler Perrys For Colored Girls, while the film itself received mixed to negative reviews, her performance was praised by many critics. One journalist described her as the great lost Best Supporting Actress contender of the 2010 season, since 2013 Kimberly is part of the cast of VH1s new series Hit The Floor. Elise was married to Maurice Oldham from 1989 to 2005, the couple had two daughters, Ajableu Arial Oldham and Butterfly Rose Oldham. Maurice Oldham died from a blood clot in 2007. Elises maternal descent is of the Songhai people, Elise is vegan and has worked with PETA to promote the lifestyle

11.
Kodak Theatre
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Since its opening on November 9,2001, the theater has hosted the Academy Awards ceremonies, initially held there in March 2002. The theater was designed by David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, with Theatre Projects Consultants, the result of astute planning and technical design, the auditorium is particularly successful as a venue for televised theatrical performance. Power is also substantial and accessible, the theater has a unique, Rockwell-designed cockpit in the orchestra seating area for camera, sound, and stage management. Currently the columns are set for Best Picture up to 2071, the theater is rented to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for weeks before Oscar night. Having hosted the awards annually since 2002, the theater is best known for this event, during the rest of the year, it hosts numerous live concerts, awards shows, symphony performances, and other events. It has provided the stage for musicals, dance shows, symphony performances, the theater was sponsored, until February 2012, by the Eastman Kodak Company, which paid $75 million for naming rights to the building. In early 2012, Eastman Kodak filed for protection. Then, the name was temporarily changed to The Hollywood and Highland Center. On May 1,2012, it was announced that the venue would be renamed the Dolby Theatre, Dolby updated the sound system first by installing Dolby Atmos. The company plans to continue updating the auditorium with newer technologies as they become available, the show made significant changes to the theater, including adding lifts deep under the original floor. It was announced on November 29,2012 that Iris would close on January 19,2013 after only two seasons, due to lack of profit, after hosting the Academy Awards on February 24,2013, the theater reopened for touring acts and headliners. The theater has hosted the annual AFI Life Achievement Award, the ESPY Awards for excellence in sports performance, in April 2006, it was home to the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards and hosted the 34th Daytime Emmy Awards on June 15,2007. It also hosted the Miss USA pageant twice, in 2004 and 2007, while the Dolby Theatre has most often hosted public cultural events, such as concerts and other performances, it has also occasionally served private purposes, such as weddings. Live Official Website of the Dolby Theatre

12.
Loretta Devine
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She had a role in the series Everybody Hates Chris as Rochelles mother. In film, Devine appeared in Waiting to Exhale, The Preachers Wife, I Am Sam, Urban Legend, Crash, Woman Thou Art Loosed, For Colored Girls, This Christmas and she currently plays Cynthia Carmichael on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show. Devine was born in Houston, Texas and her mother, Eunice ONeal, was a beautician, and her father, James Devine, worked as a laborer. She grew up in the Acres Homes area of Houston where her mom was a mom to six children. She was very active on the pep squad, and performed in talent shows at George Washington Carver High School, in 1971, Devine graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech and Drama. In 1976, she received a Master of Fine Arts in Theater from Brandeis University, Devine was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha the Epsilon Lambda Chapter. Devine has worked extensively on Broadway and she appeared in the 1978 musical A Broadway Musical, which closed after one performance. Her first Broadway show was called Comin Uptown, and featured Gregory Hines and she captured attention in Dreamgirls, a Broadway musical loosely based on the history of The Supremes, in which she originated the role of Lorrell Robinson. Minor roles for Devine followed in such as Little Nikita. She has a performance in the film version of Dreamgirls. In 1995, she landed a role as Gloria Matthews in Waiting to Exhale, opposite Whitney Houston, Gregory Hines. The role earned her an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, as did her next movie, The Preachers Wife, her movie with Houston. She later co-starred opposite Alfre Woodard in Down in the Delta and she was a repertory character in the play The Colored Museum with Vickilyn Reynolds. Devine and Reynolds both went on to play sisters in the short-lived TV series Sugar and Spice, during the period between the play and the series, Devine appeared in the first season of the TV series A Different World as Stevie Rollins, dormitory director at fictional Hillman College. From 2000 to 2004, Devine starred as high school teacher Marla Hendricks on the Fox drama series Boston Public, Devine won three more Image Awards for her work in the series. She also continued to work in film, playing prominent roles in Urban Legend, Urban Legends, Final Cut, Devine earned yet another Image Award nomination and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her work in the 2004 film Woman Thou Art Loosed. She also appeared in the 2005 film Crash, in 2007, she appeared in This Christmas, and in the next year had a series regular role on the ABC comedy-drama Eli Stone. Devine also was part of the casts of two Tyler Perry-directed films For Colored Girls and Madeas Big Happy Family

13.
Terry Crews
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Terry Alan Crews is an American actor and former American football player. He currently appears as NYPD Sergeant Terry Jeffords in the Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as an actor, Crews has played Julius on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris and Nick Kingston-Persons in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet. He has also been the host of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He has also appeared in a number of films, including White Chicks, Idiocracy, Crews was born in Flint, Michigan, the son of Patricia and Terry Crews Sr. He grew up in a strict Christian household, where he was raised mainly by his mother, as a defensive end for the WMU Broncos, Crews earned All-Conference honors and won the 1988 Mid-American Conference Championship. Crews was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 11th round of the 1991 NFL Draft and his career included stints with the Rams, the San Diego Chargers, the Washington Redskins, and the Philadelphia Eagles. After retiring from the NFL in 1997, Crews moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career and he had held a long-standing ambition to work in the film industry, but up until then had no plans to pursue acting, simply wanting to be involved in some way. A year earlier he had co-written and co-produced the independent feature film Young Boys Incorporated, filmed in Detroit, a self-funded production with an anti drug message, which drew on his own observations as well as those of his friends and family. Despite describing it as a film, he credits the experience with getting him interested in the industry. In 1999, Crews auditioned for a role as an athlete in the syndicated game show Battle Dome. He played T–Money for two seasons until its cancellation in 2001, the audition process and the opportunity to perform in front of an audience made him realize that he wanted to pursue acting as a career. However he failed to land another acting job for the two years. Appearances in commercials, films and music soon followed. His break out role came in Friday After Next starring Ice Cube, having never taken acting classes, he instead simply asked himself what the audience wanted, and believes this ultimately brought him success. He now believes acting is what he was born to do and would not wish to have any other career, despite the physically demanding nature of the work. Based on his performance in White Chicks, in 2004 Adam Sandler changed a role in The Longest Yard to give it to Crews, who had auditioned for another part in the film. His role as Julius, the father on the UPN/CW sitcom on Everybody Hates Chris brought Crews wider public recognition, since Everybody Hates Chris, Crews has had main roles as the husband/father Nick Kingston-Persons in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet. This contrast has also led to sustained work as part of various noted humorous Old Spice TV commercials, Crews cites the many similarities between acting and professional football, including the structure and expectations, as helping his transition between the two careers

14.
Wendy Raquel Robinson
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Wendy Raquel Robinson is an American actress. Robinson is best known for her roles as high school principal Regina Piggy Grier on The WB comedy sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, Robinson was born in Los Angeles. She attended Howard University where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama and she made her acting debut in 1993 on an episode of Martin. That same year she guest starred on episodes of Thea and The Sinbad Show, from 1995 to 1996, Robinson co-starred on the short-lived NBC sitcom Minor Adjustments, starring Rondell Sheridan. The following year she won the role of Regina Piggy Grier in The WB sitcom The Steve Harvey Show which aired for six seasons, after the series ended its run in 2002, she appeared on the short-lived sketch comedy series Cedric the Entertainer Presents. Robinson also made guest appearances on The Parkers, All of Us, Robinson has also appeared in several films including The Walking Dead, followed by roles in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Ringmaster, Two Can Play That Game, and Rebound. In 2000, she played Miss California in the film Miss Congeniality Miss Congeniality, in 2006, Robinson began portraying the role of Tasha Mack, in the comedy The Game. After three seasons, the series was canceled by The CW in May 2008, the Game returned to the air for a fourth season on January 11,2011, She also appeared on Shonda Rhimes Greys Anatomy in 2010. In 2014, she was cast as Cruella de Vil in the Disneys Descendants, Robinson has served as the schools Executive Director since its inception. The school has provided a safe heaven and training for thousands of young people, some of the most notable members are, Rhyon Nicole Brown, Elle Varner, and Selena Thurmond. Wendyraquel. com Wendy Raquel Robinson Official Website Wendy Raquel Robinson at the Internet Movie Database

15.
Columbus, Ohio
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Columbus is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Ohio. It is the 15th-largest city in the United States, with a population of 850,106 as of 2015 estimates and this makes Columbus the fourth-most populous state capital in the United States, and the third-largest city in the Midwestern United States. It is the city of the Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan Statistical Area. With a population of 2,021,632, it is Ohios third-largest metropolitan area, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County. The city proper has also expanded and annexed portions of adjoining Delaware County, named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. As of 2013, the city has the headquarters of five corporations in the U. S, fortune 500, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, L Brands, Big Lots, and Cardinal Health. In 2012, Columbus was ranked in BusinessWeeks 50 best cities in America. In 2013, Forbes gave Columbus an A rating as one of the top cities for business in the U. S. and later that included the city on its list of Best Places for Business. Columbus was also ranked as the No.1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation by Forbes in 2008, and the city was ranked a top-ten city by Relocate America in 2010. In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no.3 in the U. S. for cities of the future, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no.1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide. The area including modern-day Columbus once comprised the Ohio Country, under the control of the French colonial empire through the Viceroyalty of New France from 1663 until 1763. In the 18th century, European traders flocked to the area, the area found itself frequently caught between warring factions, including American Indian and European interests. In the 1740s, Pennsylvania traders overran the territory until the French forcibly evicted them, in the early 1750s, the Ohio Company sent George Washington to the Ohio Country to survey. Fighting for control of the territory in the French and Indian War became part of the international Seven Years War, during this period, the region routinely suffered turmoil, massacres, and battles. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the Ohio Country to the British Empire, after the American Revolution, the Ohio Country became part of the Virginia Military District, under the control of the United States. Colonists from the East Coast moved in, but rather finding a empty frontier, they encountered people of the Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee. The tribes resisted expansion by the fledgling United States, leading to years of bitter conflict, the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, which finally opened the way for new settlements. By 1797, a surveyor from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant had founded a permanent settlement on the west bank of the forks of the Scioto River

16.
NAACP
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Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Moorfield Storey. Its mission in the 21st century is to ensure the political, educational, social and their national initiatives included political lobbying, publicity efforts, and litigation strategies developed by their legal team. The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct, the status of foreign refugees. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the common term colored people. The NAACP bestows annual awards to people of color in two categories, Image Awards are for achievement in the arts and entertainment, and Spingarn Medals are for outstanding achievement of any kind and its headquarters is in Baltimore, Maryland. The NAACP is headquartered in Baltimore, with regional offices in New York, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, Colorado. Each regional office is responsible for coordinating the efforts of state conferences in that region, local, youth, and college chapters organize activities for individual members. In the U. S. the NAACP is administered by a 64-member board, julian Bond, Civil Rights Movement activist and former Georgia State Senator, was chairman until replaced in February 2010 by health-care administrator Roslyn Brock. For decades in the first half of the 20th century, the organization was led by its executive secretary. James Weldon Johnson and Walter F. White, who served in that role successively from 1920 to 1958, were more widely known as NAACP leaders than were presidents during those years. Departments within the NAACP govern areas of action, local chapters are supported by the Branch and Field Services department and the Youth and College department. The Legal department focuses on cases of broad application to minorities, such as systematic discrimination in employment, government. The Washington, D. C. bureau is responsible for lobbying the U. S. government, the goal of the Health Division is to advance health care for minorities through public policy initiatives and education. As of 2007, the NAACP had approximately 425,000 paying and non-paying members, the NAACPs non-current records are housed at the Library of Congress, which has served as the organizations official repository since 1964. The records held there comprise approximately five million items spanning the NAACPs history from the time of its founding until 2003, in 1905, a group of thirty-two prominent African-American leaders met to discuss the challenges facing people of color and possible strategies and solutions. They were particularly concerned by the Southern states disenfranchisement of blacks starting with Mississippis passage of a new constitution in 1890, through 1908, southern legislatures dominated by white Democrats ratified new constitutions and laws creating barriers to voter registration and more complex election rules. In practice, this caused the exclusion of most blacks and many whites from the political system in southern states. Black voter registration and turnout dropped markedly in the South as a result of such legislation, men who had been voting for thirty years in the South were told they did not qualify to register

17.
Mary White Ovington
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Mary White Ovington was an American suffragist, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP. Mary White Ovington was born April 11,1865, in Brooklyn and her grandmother attended the Connecticut congregation of Samuel Joseph May. Her parents, members of the Unitarian Church were supporters of rights and had been involved in anti-slavery movement. Educated at Packer Collegiate Institute and Radcliffe College, Ovington became involved in the campaign for rights in 1890 after hearing Frederick Douglass speak in a Brooklyn church. In 1895 she helped found the Greenpoint Settlement in Brooklyn, appointed head of the project the following year, Ovington remained until 1904 when she was appointed fellow of the Greenwich House Committee on Social Investigations. Over the next five years she studied employment and housing problems in black Manhattan, during her investigations she met W. E. B. Du Bois and was introduced to the members of the Niagara Movement. Influenced by the ideas of William Morris, Ovington joined the Socialist Party of America in 1905, philip Randolph, Floyd Dell, Max Eastman and Jack London, who argued that racial problems were as much a matter of class as of race. She wrote for journals and newspapers such as The Masses, New York Evening Post. She also worked with Ray Stannard Baker and influenced the content of his book, Following the Color Line, on September 3,1908 she read an article written by Socialist William English Walling, entitled Race War in the North in The Independent. Walling ended the article by calling for a body of citizens to come to the aid of blacks. Ovington responded to the article by writing Walling and meeting at his apartment in New York City along with social worker Dr. Henry Moskowitz. The group decided to launch a campaign by issuing a call for a conference on the civil and political rights of African-Americans on the centennial of Lincoln’s birthday. Many people responded to the call that led to the formation of the National Negro Committee that held its first meeting in New York on May 31. Early members included Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Mary Church Terrell, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, George Henry White, W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, Oswald Garrison Villard, the following year Ovington attended the Universal Races Congress in London. Ovington remained active in the struggle for suffrage and as a pacifist opposed the United Statess involvement in the First World War. During the war Ovington supported A, philip Randolph and his magazine The Messenger, which campaigned for black civil rights

18.
James Weldon Johnson
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James Weldon Johnson was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in 1920 he was the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930, Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novels, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He was appointed under President Theodore Roosevelt as US consul in Venezuela, in 1934 he was the first African-American professor to be hired at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of literature and writing at Fisk University. Johnson was born in 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of Helen Louise Dillet, a native of Nassau, Bahamas, although originally headed to Cuba, their boat was intercepted by privateers and they were taken to Nassau, Bahamas, where they permanently settled. In 1833 Stephen Dillet became the first man of color to win election to the Bahamian legislature, jamess brother was John Rosamond Johnson, who became a composer. The boys were first educated by their mother, a musician and their mother imparted to them her great love and knowledge of English literature and the European tradition in music. At the age of 16, Johnson enrolled at Clark Atlanta University, in addition to his studies for the bachelors degree, he also completed some graduate coursework. Molded by the education for which Atlanta University was best known. He knew he was expected to devote himself to helping black people advance, Johnson was a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. Johnson and his brother Rosamond moved to New York City as young men and they collaborated on songwriting and achieved some success on Broadway in the early 1900s. Over the next 40 years Johnson served in several capacities, working in education, the diplomatic corps. In 1904 he participated in Theodore Roosevelts successful presidential campaign, after becoming president, Roosevelt appointed Johnson as United States consul at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela from 1906 to 1908, and to Nicaragua from 1909 to 1913. In 1910, Johnson married Grace Nail, whom he had met in New York City several years earlier while working as a songwriter, a cultured and well-educated New Yorker, Grace Nail Johnson later collaborated with her husband on a screenwriting project. After their return to New York from Nicaragua, Johnson became increasingly involved in the Harlem Renaissance and he wrote his own poetry and supported work by others, also compiling and publishing anthologies of spirituals and poetry. Owing to his influence and his poetry, Johnson became a leading voice in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. He became involved in civil rights activism, especially the campaign to pass legislation against lynching

19.
Walter Francis White
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He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist and he graduated in 1916 from Atlanta University, a historically black college. In 1918 White joined the national staff of the NAACP in New York at the invitation of James Weldon Johnson. He acted as Johnsons assistant national secretary and traveled to the South to investigate lynchings, of multiracial, majority-white ancestry, at times he passed as white to facilitate his investigations and protect himself in tense situations. White succeeded Johnson as the head of the NAACP, leading the organization from 1931 to 1955, White oversaw the plans and organizational structure of the fight against public segregation. He worked with President Truman on desegregating the armed forces after the Second World War, under Whites leadership, the NAACP set up its Legal Defense Fund, which conducted numerous legal challenges to segregation and disfranchisement, and achieved many successes. Among these was the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, White also quintupled NAACP membership to nearly 500,000. Walter Francis White was the fourth of seven children born in Atlanta to George W. White, among the new middle class of blacks, George and Madeline, both born into slavery, ensured that Walter and each of their children got an education. By the time Walter was born, George had attended Atlanta University and become a postal worker, Madeline graduated from the same institution and became a teacher. White received a good growing up. He attended the Atlanta public schools, finished the Atlanta University high school in 1912, and this period of study enabled White to spend eight years in the old Atlantas unusual atmosphere at its zenith. There he was exposed to instruction which had been enriched by a decade of W. E. B, undoubtedly Whites life work reflected on the Old Atlanta Universitys pioneer and still unequaled contributions in Southern colored institutions of higher learning. The White family belonged to the influential First Congregational Church, founded after the Civil War by freedmen, of all the black denominations in Georgia, the Congregationalists were among the most socially, politically and financially powerful. Membership in First Congregational was the status symbol in Atlanta. Of mixed race with African and European ancestry on both sides, White had features showing the latter and he emphasized in his autobiography, A Man Called White, I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond, the traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me. Of his 32 great-great-great-grandparents, five were black and the other 27 were white, all members of his immediate family had fair skin, and his mother Madeline was also blue-eyed and blonde. The oral history of his mothers family is that her grandparents were Dilsia, a slave and concubine

20.
Roy Wilkins
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Roy Wilkins was a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901. Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in sociology in 1923, while attending college, Wilkins worked as a journalist at The Minnesota Daily and became editor of The Appeal, an African-American newspaper. After he graduated he became the editor of The Call in 1923 and his confrontation of the Jim Crow Laws led his activist work and in 1931, he moved to New York City as assistant NAACP secretary under Walter Francis White. Du Bois left the organization in 1934, Wilkins replaced him as editor of The Crisis, from 1949-50, Wilkins chaired the National Emergency Civil Rights Mobilization, which comprised more than 100 local and national groups. He served as an adviser to the War Department during World War II, in 1950, Wilkins — along with A. LCCR has become the premier civil rights coalition, and has coordinated the national legislative campaign on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957. In 1955, Roy Wilkins was chosen to be the secretary of the NAACP. He had developed an excellent reputation as a spokesperson for the civil rights movement. One of his first actions was to support to civil rights activists in Mississippi who were being subject to a credit squeeze by members of the White Citizens Councils. Wilkins backed a proposal suggested by Dr. T. R. M, howard of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, who headed the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, a leading civil rights organization in the state. Under the plan, black businesses and voluntary associations shifted their accounts to the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Memphis, by the end of 1955, about $300,000 had been deposited in Tri-State for this purpose. The money enabled Tri-State to extend loans to blacks who were denied loans by white banks. Wilkins participated in the March on Washington which he helped organize, the Selma to Montgomery marches, and he believed in achieving reform by legislative means, testified before many Congressional hearings and conferred with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. Wilkins strongly opposed militancy in the movement for civil rights as represented by the black power movement due to his non-violence initiative, on issues of segregation, as well, he was a proponent of systematic integration instead of radical desegregation. In an 1964 interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro. And, for any reformer, black or white, zealot or not, to come along and say, I’ll destroy it, if it doesnt do like I want it to do, is very dangerous business, as far as I’m concerned. However, these moderate views increasingly brought him conflict with younger. Wilkins was also a member of Omega Psi Phi, a fraternity with a civil rights focus, in 1964, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP

Theatre
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The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence, the specific place of the performance is also named by the word theatre as derived from the Ancient Gr

1.
Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, in 1899

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A master (right) and his slave (left) in a Greek phlyax play, circa 350/340 BCE

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Mosaic depicting masked actors in a play: two women consult a "witch"

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Performer playing Sugriva in the Koodiyattam form of Sanskrit theatre.

United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

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Flag

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The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

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The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county

Glynn Turman
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Glynn Russell Turman is an American stage, television, and film actor as well as a writer, director, and producer. He recently portrayed Jeremiah Kaan on the Showtime series House of Lies, lonne Elder III, John Fiedler and Diana Sands. While he did not play the role when it transferred to film in 1961 and he made his Los Angeles stage debut in Vinn

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Turman in 2007.

Hill Harper
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Francis Eugene Hill Harper is an American actor and author. Harper was born in Iowa City, Iowa, the son of Harry Harper, a psychiatrist, and Marilyn Hill and he has been acting since the age of 7. Harper graduated from Bella Vista High School in 1984 and he then graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1988. In 1992 Harper graduated with

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Hill Harper at Left Bank Books in St. Louis, MO signing his book Letters to a Young Brother (May 22, 2007).

Valarie Pettiford
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Valarie Pettiford is an American stage and television actress, dancer, and jazz singer. She received a Tony nomination for her role in the broadway production Fosse and she is also known for her role as Big Dee Dee Thorne on the UPN sitcom Half & Half. Pettiford began her career as a dancer and choreographer in Bob Fosse productions on Broadway, mi

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Pettiford in October 2009

Directors Guild of America
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The Directors Guild of America is an entertainment guild which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the merged with the Radio. As a union that seeks to organize an individual profession, rather than multiple professions acros

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Directors Guild of America building on Sunset Boulevard.

Chandra Wilson
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Chandra Danette Wilson is an American actress, known for her role as Dr. Miranda Bailey in the ABC television drama Greys Anatomy since 2005. She made her New York stage debut in 1991 and began to land guest spots on a variety of television shows. She made her first film appearance in the 1993 film Philadelphia, Wilson was born and raised in Housto

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Wilson at the 2014 Voice Awards, August 2014

Anthony Anderson
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Anthony Anderson is an American actor, comedian, writer, and game show host. He has starred in his own sitcom, All About the Andersons, as well as the ABC sitcom Black-ish and he is also known for his leading roles in drama series K-Ville, The Shield and as NYPD Detective Kevin Bernard on Law & Order. He has also had roles in feature films such as

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Anderson in May 2010

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Anderson in July 2006

Kimberly Elise
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Kimberly Elise Trammel, professionally known as Kimberly Elise, is an American film and television actress. She made her film debut in Set It Off. During her career, Elise has appeared in such as John Q. The Manchurian Candidate, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Great Debaters, For Colored Girls, Elise also starred in the CBS crime drama series, Clo

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Kimberly Elise in 2012

Kodak Theatre
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Since its opening on November 9,2001, the theater has hosted the Academy Awards ceremonies, initially held there in March 2002. The theater was designed by David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group, with Theatre Projects Consultants, the result of astute planning and technical design, the auditorium is particularly successful as a venue for televised th

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Front facade of the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood

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The Grand Staircase leading up to the Dolby Theatre

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Districts and neighborhoods

Loretta Devine
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She had a role in the series Everybody Hates Chris as Rochelles mother. In film, Devine appeared in Waiting to Exhale, The Preachers Wife, I Am Sam, Urban Legend, Crash, Woman Thou Art Loosed, For Colored Girls, This Christmas and she currently plays Cynthia Carmichael on the NBC sitcom The Carmichael Show. Devine was born in Houston, Texas and her

1.
Devine in December 2010

Terry Crews
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Terry Alan Crews is an American actor and former American football player. He currently appears as NYPD Sergeant Terry Jeffords in the Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as an actor, Crews has played Julius on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris and Nick Kingston-Persons in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet. He has also been the host of the game show

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Crews at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International

Wendy Raquel Robinson
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Wendy Raquel Robinson is an American actress. Robinson is best known for her roles as high school principal Regina Piggy Grier on The WB comedy sitcom The Steve Harvey Show, Robinson was born in Los Angeles. She attended Howard University where she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama and she made her acting debut in 1993 on an

1.
Robinson in 2013.

Columbus, Ohio
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Columbus is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Ohio. It is the 15th-largest city in the United States, with a population of 850,106 as of 2015 estimates and this makes Columbus the fourth-most populous state capital in the United States, and the third-largest city in the Midwestern United States. It is the city of the Columbus, Ohio

NAACP
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Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Moorfield Storey. Its mission in the 21st century is to ensure the political, educational, social and their national initiatives included political lobbying, publicity efforts, and litigation strategies developed by their legal team. The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering issues such

3.
An African American drinks out of a segregated water cooler designated for "colored" patrons in 1939 at a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City.

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Sign for the "colored" waiting room at a bus station in Durham, North Carolina, 1940

Mary White Ovington
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Mary White Ovington was an American suffragist, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP. Mary White Ovington was born April 11,1865, in Brooklyn and her grandmother attended the Connecticut congregation of Samuel Joseph May. Her parents, members of the Unitarian Church were supporters of rights and had been involved in anti-slavery movement. Educat

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Portrait, c. 1910

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Mary White Ovington's plaque on the National Volunteer Pathway

James Weldon Johnson
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James Weldon Johnson was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in 1920 he was the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating

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photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1932

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Johnson lived here in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C., while serving as national organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Walter Francis White
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He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist and he graduated in 1916 from Atlanta University, a historically black college. In 1918 White joined the national staff of the NAACP in New York at the invitation of James Weldon Johnson. He acted as Johnsons

1.
Walter Francis White

Roy Wilkins
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Roy Wilkins was a prominent activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Wilkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901. Wilkins graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in s

1.
Roy Wilkins in 1968

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Roy Wilkins as the Executive Secretary of the NAACP in 1963.

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Wilkins (right) with Sammy Davis, Jr. (left) and a reporter at the 1963. Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.